Report Guernsey Colour Ringed Gulls

Sightings of Guernsey colour ringed Gulls can be entered here for an instant life history, or sent to pkv@cwgsy.net for a life history to be returned by e-mail to observers.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Two More LBBGs to Africa and another Herring Gull in Spain

Amongst the steady flow of interesting reports of our colour
ringed gulls I recently received new of another two LBBGs in Morocco, and a
Herring Gull that regularly winters in Northern Spain. On consecutive days Ruth
Gorria reported LBBG Black 2AJ6 from Sidi-Moussa, Oualidia and B9CA8 from El
Jadida, Morocco. Both birds had been ringed as adults at Chouet landfill (the
first in May 2011 and the second in May 2013). Although B2JA6 has been observed
in Guernsey on a number of occasions since, Ruth’s observation in Morocco was
the first report of this bird outside the Channel islands. The observation of
B9CA8 in Morocco is the first report of this bird since ringing.

These observations are of considerable interest because
although the majority of Channel Islands’ nesting LBBGs winter in Iberia, a
minority travels further into Africa. I have seen a number of our birds in
December at Anza, near Agadir, but the coastal areas of northern Morocco (where
I believe CI birds are most likely to be) receive very little attention from
gull watchers. It would be really useful to mount an expedition to this area to
see if this theory is supported by further evidence.

Herring Gull White 7CJ5 (ringed as an adult female in May
2011 at Chouet Landfill) breeds in the Channel Islands, but has now been
reported from the coasts of Asturias, Spain in each of the last three winters.
It has been observed in Guernsey every summer since ringing!